Military still has work to do in rooting out sexual misconduct: report

The work done by the Canadian Forces so far to address systemic issues of sexual harassment and misconduct amounts to a good start — but there is still much left to do, says the former Supreme Court justice who reported last April on what she called the “sexualized culture” of Canada’s military.

Former justice Marie Deschamps issued a new progress report Monday on how Canada’s military is responding to the problems flagged in her damning report last spring that called for systemic change in the military’s culture and led to the creation of an independent sexual misconduct reporting centre.

“To the members and victims, I ask for patience,” wrote Deschamps, who wrote the initial report and Monday’s progress update. “The Sexual Misconduct Response Centre is a means to respond effectively to sexual misconduct, not an end itself. The next steps will raise more difficult challenges, such as modifying ingrained attitudes and rebuilding trust.”

According to the progress report, there have been 246 contacts made with the Sexual Misconduct Response Centre by 204 individuals since mid-September until December 31.

Of the 204, 156 of the individuals were members of the Canadian Forces and half were female while the other half were male.

As of January 29, there are eight investigations underway, a Department of National Defence spokesperson confirmed.

“There will be more investigations in the future and I see this as good news,” said Gen. Jonathan Vance, head of Canada’s military, speaking at a press conference after the report was released.

Among the efforts the military is making to try and get on top of the issue is a voluntary survey they say will be run by Statistics Canada in April.

That survey will be offered to regular and reserve force members and will be designed to help to military get a scope of the nature of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behaviour within their ranks.

The survey wasn’t among the initial recommendations Deschamps made in her first report on sexual misconduct in the military in spring 2015 but progress has been made on some of those as well, the report says.

One of the recommendations made was that the military consider letting individuals contact the Sexual Misconduct Response Centre without that contact automatically triggering an investigation.

The military assigned a military police liaison officer to work with the Sexual Misconduct Response Centre and the Strategic Response Team, which is responsible for implementing the recommendations of the Deschamps report, and that approach has been successful so far, the progress report indicates.

“Initial victim feedback indicates that this relationship is serving them well and those who call feel more comfortable dealing with a consistent contact who understands their story and makes a connection with the caller,” Deschamps wrote in the progress report. “Of the 23 calls referred from the Response Centre to the Military Police Liaison Officer, six have become investigations.”

Other recommendations, such as that the military clearly define terms like “sexual harassment”, “adverse personal relationship” and “sexual assault”, are still a work in progress.

No clear progress has been made in this area, Deschamps said, and that needs to change right away.

“An in-depth review of definitions and the simplification of the associated language is a clear and pressing requirement for the Canadian Armed Forces. The lack of progress in this area is a serious concern, because of its foundational nature,” she wrote. “Therefore, the priority of clarifying definitions must increase in the next quarter.”

The next three months will see the military pay more attention to that, the report says.

For example, there will be a “more fulsome review” of the definitions associated with inappropriate sexual behaviour but it’s not clear when that will be completed.

The Strategic Response Team held its first working group in January with representatives from across the military to start developing a plain-language, unified policy on inappropriate sexual behaviour, and the navy is also expected to complete a rewrite of some of its internal polices in early 2016 with regards to sexual misconduct.

The navy’s findings and changes will also be shared with other teams to help inform their discussions, the report says.

What happens over the coming months will shape the direction the Canadian Forces take in tackling sexual misconduct in the longer term, so the military needs to recognize and commit to facing the challenges that come from this kind of systemic review, Deschamps wrote.

“The way ahead will be challenging and the level of effort required is significant,” she said. “A number of major initiatives will be tackled in the coming months providing the foundation on which more significant change will be effected.”

And despite the good progress so far, it will take years before the broader cultural shift Deschamps initially called for is achieved.

“The Canadian Armed Forces is making good progress in executing the Operation HONOUR mission, notwithstanding the daunting nature of institutional culture change on a subject as complex as harmful and inappropriate sexual behaviour,” she said.

“The Chief of the Defence Staff’s intent is clear, and changes in behaviour are starting to be seen across the organization, but the longer-term cultural shift will take a number of years.”

NDP defence critic Randall Garrison said those long time lines are concerning and he wants to know the government will commit to making sure the military has the resources it needs to sustain such a restructuring.

He also called for a more committed effort to bring women into the Canadian Forces, saying that is a vital part of changing the culture.

“And if we’re going to change the culture in the military, it’s necessary to recommit to the recruitment goals set by the Canadian Human Rights Commission of 25 percent women in the military.,” he said. “We’re now at 15 percent, and the previous government tried to reduce that goal of recruiting down to 18 percent. We know the experience in institutions in Canada. Unless there’s a critical mass of women present, we don’t change the culture of that institution. ”